SPRING 2009
SPECIAL
ucation
Icohol, Tobacco and Other Drugs
i y 4 j j ^ j u j
E
lie
Social Norms Marketing Campaigns
on Campus: What the Research Shows
How Old Should You Be-
To Buy Alcohol??
Be Prepared!
Not So Sexy
According to a recent
study women appear,
erroneously, to believe
that men find excessive
drinking sexually attrac-
tive and appealing. It
found that 71 percent of
women surveyed at two
universities overestimated
the men's actual prefer-
ence of drinks at any
given event. The women
overestimated by an
average of one-and-
a-half drinks. When the researchers looked
at the different subgroups, 26 percent of
women said that men would most likely
want to be friends with a woman who
drinks five or more drinks and 1 6 percent
said that men would be most sexually
attracted to a woman who drank that much
alcohol. Both estimates were nearly double
what the men actually preferred. They
also found the women who overestimated
the men's preferences were more likely to
engage in excessive drinking ("What men
want: The role of reflective opposite-sex
normative preferences in alcohol use
among college women". Psychology of
Addictive Behaviors, Vol. 23, No. 1, 2009).
"Although traditionally, men drink more
than women, research has shown that
women have steadily been drinking more
and more over the last several decades,"
said the study's lead author, Joseph LaBrie,
PhD, associate professor of psychology at
Loyola Marymount University. "There is a
great, and risky, disconnect here between
the sexes. While not all women may be
drinking simply to get a guy's attention,
this may help explain why more women are
drinking at dangerous levels. We believe uni-
versities and other public health organiza-
tions could use this information to help curb
binge drinking among young women."
More Time Drinking than Studying?
According to a survey of over 30,000 stu-
dents who participated in a Fall 2008 online
survey at AlcoholEdu®for College, first-year
college students who used alcohol drank
an estimated 10.2 hours per week, com-
pared to studying only 8.4 hours per week.
Students who drank represented 68.9 per-
cent of the respondents. Of these, 49.4
percent spent more time drinking alcohol
than they did studying. The estimate of
how much time first-year students spent
studying was derived from several sources,
including the Higher Education Research
Institute's annual survey report, The
American Freshman.
"As student affairs professionals, we view
the issue of college drinking as one of the
biggestthreats to our effectiveness as educa-
tors. Our hope is that this new finding will
motivate allthose within the academy, and
even the larger community, to join us as we
redouble ourefforts to de-emphasize the
role of alcohol in college life. Indeed, while
comprehensive prevention programming
has always been an imperative, it is clearly
now more important than ever," Gwendolyn
Jordan Dungy, PhD, executive director of the
National Association of Student Personnel
Administrators, told Science Daily (Mar. 11,
2009).
The study, which was conducted by
researchers at Outside The Classroom, was
presented at the 2009 NASPA Strategies
Conference: Alcohol Abuse Prevention
& Intervention, held January 22-24 in
Boston.
Alcohol in the Media and Drinking
Behavior
Whether portrayals of drinking and alcohol
advertising in movies or on television impact
drinking behavior has long been the subject
of debate among researchers and alcohol
control advocates and the alcohol industry.
Now a new Dutch and Canadian study of
male university student's drinking behavior
while watching an hour of TV (a movie clip
with ad breaks) found that, compared to
those who did not see much alcohol por-
trayed on screen, those who saw alcohol
portrayed frequently, on average consumed
1 .5 more 200 ml bottles of alcoholic bever-
age ("Alcohol portrayal on television affects
actual drinking behaviour," Alcohol and
Alcoholism, March 4, 2009).
Lead author of the report Rutger Engels,
professor of developmental psycho-
pathology at the Behavioural Science
Institute, Radboud University Nijmegen,
The Netherlands, said: "This is the first
experimental study to show a direct effect
of exposure to alcohol portrayals on TV on
viewers' immediate drinking behaviour."
Engels said the study clearly showed that
portraying alcohol in films and advertise-
ments not only influenced people's atti-
tudes about drinking within a culture or
society, but might also have a direct effect
on behavior, such as triggering a craving in
people who already consume alcohol. The
researchers said if their findings are repli-
cated in other studies this should be a wake
up call for policymakers.
Continued on inside back cover
Prevention File is a publication of the Silver Gate Group
(Federal Tax ID: 33-0714724)
Opinions expressed herein are those of the authors or other sources cited
and do not necessarily reflect the beliefs of the Silver Gate Group, its
editorial advisors, its officers or its personnel.
Publisher: Tom Colthurst
Editor: Barbara E. Ryan
Editor Emeritus: Robert Zimmerman
Contributing Editors: William Dejong, Jean Seager
Design/Illustrations: John Lane
Production: J. Lane E
PREVENTION FILE
Copyright 2009 by the Silver Gate Group. Permission to reprint
articles is granted for noncommercial use and with acknowledgment.
We would appreciate receipt of any publication carrying a reprinted
Prevention File article.
Comments and suggestions are welcome.
Address letters to Prevention File, Silver Gate Group
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SPECIAL EDITION: Prevention in Higher Education • Spring 2009
COVER
"POSTERS"
by J. Lane Designs
2 SOCIAL NORMS MARKETING CAMPAIGNS ON CAMPUS:
WHAT THE RESEARCH SHOWS
By William Dejong
Social norms marketing campaigns to correct misperceptions of drinking norms
are a popular prevention program on many campuses, but do they work?
7 Q & A WITH FRAN HARDING
The new director of the U.S. Center for Substance Abuse Prevention talks about
interagency collaboration and prevention research.
HOW OLD SHOULD YOU DE - TO RUY ALCOHOL??
Despite research evidence on the effectiveness of age 21 drinking laws, some are
calling for change.
13 TAXES AND HEALTH AND SAFETY
Increasing interest in raising alcohol excise taxes.
10 RE PREPARED!
Every year colleges and universities are called upon to respond to a wide variety of
emergency and crisis situations.
20 ROOK REVIEW
College Drinking: Reframing a Social Problem
By George W.Dowdall
A new book examines the broader cultural, organizational and social forces
shaping drinking by college students.
UPDATES
Inside front and back covers.
SPRING 2009 PREVE
N T I N FILE I
Campaigns
1 FOR DECADES AMERICAN
Social norms marketing (SNM) campaigns
1 STUDENTS have been indoctri-
are designed to correct misperceptions of
on Campus:
H 1 nated to believe that heavy drink-
ing is a natural part of the college experience.
campus drinking norms, the idea being that
students will be inspired to drink less if they
What the
Alcohol advertising, films, television programs,
know what the true drinking norms are.
news stories, college lore — cultural messages
Michael Haines at Northern Illinois University
Research Shows
from these many sources have contributed to
implemented the first SNM campaign, and
the widespread belief that students who don't
annual surveys showing decreases in student
by William Dejong
drink won't fit in.
drinking suggested that it might be working.
The unfortunate result is that college stu-
Other colleges — the University of Arizona,
dents think there is much more drinking going
Western Washington University, and Hobart and
on than is actually the case. That misperception
William Smith Colleges — soon touted similar
has significant consequences, for the choices
findings.
students make about alcohol use are strongly
None of these early studies included survey
influenced by what they think other students
data from control group institutions that did
are doing, whether those impressions are
not have a SNM campaign. Even so, the case
accurate or not.
studies told a compelling story: four campuses
that had struggled for years to drive down stu-
PREVENTION FILE
HIGHER EDUCATION EDITION
Social norms
marketing (SNM)
campaigns are
designed to correct
misperceptionsof
campus drinking
norms, the idea
being that students
will be inspired to
drink less if they
know what the true
drinking norms are.
dent alcohol use were now reporting a measure
of success. Dozens of campuses soon began to
experiment with this approach — some suc-
cessfully, but some not.
Clearly, there was a need for better research
on social norms marketing. To meet this
need, Laura Gomberg Towvim, Shari Kessel
Schneider, and I launched the Social Norms
Marketing Research Project (SNMRP) in 2000.
Conducting this study took several years.
Meanwhile, in 2002 and again in a 2007
update, the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse
and Alcoholism (NIAAA) Task Force on College
Drinking classified this approach as a Tier 3
strategy — meaning that it was "one of a
number of popular strategies and policy
suggestions make sense intuitively or
have strong theoretical support."
(4 Call to Action: Changing the
Culture of Drinking at U.S.
Colleges, NIAAA, 2002) The
2007 NIAAA update character-
ized SNM as "still promising,
but results are mixed and
questions remain" (What
Colleges Need to Know
Now: An Update on
reasons for thinking that SNM campaigns
might work, but the absence of rigorous evalu-
ations involving control groups left the matter
in doubt.
Social Norms Marketing
Research Project
Beginning in 2000, my colleagues and I con-
ducted two randomized trials to test whether
SNM campaigns can reduce student drinking
levels. In both studies, we randomly assigned
half of the participating colleges to a treatment
group, which conducted a three-year
campaign. The
Research, NIAAA,
2007). There were
both logical and theoretical
SPRING 2009 PREVEN
T I N FILE J
remaining half constituted a non-intervention
control group. All of the alcohol and other drug
coordinators certified that their campus had
never mounted a SNM campaign.
The first study, involving 18 institutions,
showed that the SNM campaigns had been
effective. Across several survey measures, we
saw that the level of drinking at the control
group schools went up significantly, matching
national trends reported by the Core Institute,
while the intervention group schools showed
no such increase.
To our surprise, the second study, involving
14 institutions, showed no differences between
the intervention and control group schools.
Richard Scribner and his colleagues at
Louisiana State University helped us sort out
what had happened. To begin, for each of the
32 sites, we calculated the density of on-prem-
ise alcohol outlets (bars, taverns, restaurants)
within a three-mile radius of campus. Next, we
compared how well the SNM campaigns did
when the density was at or above the median
(10.78 outlets per
1,000 students)
versus below the
median.
We found
that the SNM
campaigns did make a dif-
ference at institutions located in communities
with low outlet density, but failed to have an
effect in communities with high density, just as
Scribner had long ago predicted.
This finding explained the dif-
fering results for our two SNMRP
studies. In the first, which showed
that SNM campaigns can be
If this is the explanation, then campus
officials working in such a community would
want to address the alcohol environment prior
to launching a social norms marketing cam-
paign. This could be done through environ-
mental management strategies that reduce the
number of outlets near campus, restrict alcohol
marketing and promotion, and limit the times,
places, and circumstances under which alcohol
can be purchased and consumed, all measures
supported by the NIAAA Task Force on College
Drinking.
The changes in A fU . kl
Another possible explanation
student behavior for the SNMRP results is that the
reported OVer alcohol outlets— by their mere
effective, 13 of the 18 institutions fllC COUTSG Of UllS presence, but also because of their
were located in low-density com-
munities. In the second study, a
replication failure, 11 of the 14
institutions were located in high-
density communities.
Why might SNM campaigns be less effective
when there are several outlets near campus?
One possibility is that high outlet density
reduces student misperceptions of drinking
norms. Having more alcohol outlets promotes
drinking, but these outlets, by encouraging
public drinking, might also give students more
opportunities to observe and accurately perceive
elevated student drinking levels in that campus
community. If most students tend not to misper-
ceive the norms, what could a SNM campaign
be expected to achieve?
intensive SNM
campaign were
dramatic.
promotional advertising — com-
municate messages that compete
with the SNM campaign and rein-
force student misperceptions of
campus drinking norms.
Consistent with this perspective, Tom
Workman from the University of Houston-
Downtown has suggested that SNM campaigns
might be less effective anytime the student body
puts a high cultural value on excessive alcohol
use, which could be signaled by a large number
of alcohol outlets. If this is the case, Workman
explains, then before launching a campaign,
practitioners should conduct a readiness assess-
ment to see whether a campus community is
ripe for a SNM campaign.
PREVENTION FILE
HIGHER EDUCATION EDITION
It's important to note, however, that the
SNMRP studies provided each campus with
start-up funds of only $2,000 per year, with
supplemental funds of $300 to $1,650 per
campus awarded for the second and third
years. It's entirely possible that we did not
provide the colleges facing high alcohol
outlet density with sufficient resources to
mount an effective campaign.
University of Virginia
Evaluation
A later study conducted at
the University of Virginia by
James Tamer, Wes Perkins, and
Jennifer Bauerle supports the
thesis that a large, highly visible
SNM campaign can counteract
an entrenched drinking culture
and reduce alcohol-related ^^^^^
problems.
The university's SNM campaign began in
1999 with a focus on first-year students and
then expanded in 2002 to include all under-
graduates. The campaign messages corrected
misperceptions about the quantity and fre-
quency of alcohol use, while also communi-
cating that most students practiced protective
behaviors such as asking friends to slow down
if they are drinking excessively, tending to a
friend who had passed out, not allowing an
intoxicated friend to drive, and using a desig-
nated driver or alternative transportation.
Social norms
marketing
campaigns
should be
part of any
comprehensive
effort to reduce
college student
drinking.
The campaign grew over time. In 1999, staff
introduced the campaign through a monthly
series of posters. In 2002, the campuswide
campaign was introduced, with weekly campus
posters, newspaper ads and articles, and emails,
plus staff and peer presentations in residence
halls, Greek residences, and classrooms. In
2003, the staff organized small group ses-
sions for fraternity and sorority
members and athletes. In 2004,
the campaign began to host an
annual music event. Facebook
ads commenced in 2005. Parent
orientation sessions started before
the 2002-03 academic year.
The study did not include
any control group institutions.
Nonetheless, the University of
Virginia study has two strengths.
^^^^^ First, survey data were collected
annually from 2001 through
2006. Second, no new policies or programs to
address student drinking were launched at the
institutional, community, or state level during
this time. This convenient fact increases the
likelihood that any observed changes were due
to the SNM campaign and not to other initia-
tives. That noted, alternative explanations —
such as changes in the student body having
nothing to do with the campaign — cannot be
completely ruled out.
The changes in student behavior reported
over the course of this intensive SNM campaign
were dramatic. According to annual survey data, in
2001 only 33 percent of undergraduates reported
experiencing none of ten negative consequences
due to alcohol use, compared to 51 percent in
2006, and while 44 percent experienced multiple
negative consequences in 2001, only 26 percent did
so in 2006.
Nationally, alcohol-impaired driving is the
primary cause of alcohol-related student deaths.
In 2001, 27 percent of University of Virginia under-
graduates said they had driven under the influence
of alcohol, but in 2006 only 15 percent indicated
this was the case.
As Tlirner and his colleagues point out, national
surveys of college students showed no decrease or
even slight increases in several self-reported nega-
tive consequences between 2001 and 2005. The
University of Virginia's experience stands in stark
contrast.
Conclusion
In my view, it is clear from recent research that
social norms marketing campaigns should be part
of any comprehensive effort to reduce college stu-
dent drinking.
The Social Norms Marketing Research Project
showed that SNM campaigns are effective when
the campus community has relatively low alcohol
outlet density, but perhaps less so when the campus
community has relatively high alcohol outlet den-
sity. The University of Virginia study suggests, how-
ever, that such campus communities may simply
require more intensive campaigns.
SPRING 2009 PREVEN
T I N FILE 3
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&W
But that is not the whole story. Prior to its
SNM campaign, the University launched several
initiatives to change the environment in which
students made decisions about their drinking,
including: bolstering enforcement of alcohol
rules, implementing parental notification,
deferring Greek rush, eliminating celebratory
drinking events, and training restaurant and
bar servers.
Tlirner and his colleagues report that these
measures by themselves did not make a dent
in the University's student drinking problem.
It remains an open question, however, whether
it was the SNM campaign by itself, or the cam-
paign in combination with these environmen-
tal change efforts, that made the difference later
on. Learning the answer to that ques-
^ e \ tion will require another randomized
trial.
William Dejong, PhD, is a
0^ z \ professor of social and behav-
ioral sciences at the Boston
University School of Public
Q\e^ \ Health and a senior advisor
\0^- % to the Higher Education
us\V^ \ Center for Alcohol and
Other Drug Abuse and
Violence Prevention.
The Social Norms
Marketing Research
Project was funded by a grant from
the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and
Alcoholism and the U.S. Department of
Education (R01AA 12471). □
Editor's note: For additional information on
A Call to Action: Changing the Culture of
Drinking at U.S. Colleges (NIAAA, 2002) go
to http://www.collegedrinkingprevention.gov/
NIAAACollegeMaterials/TaskForce/TaskForce_
TOC.aspx. For more information on What
Colleges Need to Know Now: An Update on
College Drinking Research (NIAAA, 2007)
go to http://www.collegedrinkingprevention.
gov/lCollege_Bulletin-508_36lC4E.pdf.
PREVENTION FILE
HIGHER EDUCATION EDITION
WITH FRAN HARDING
Fran Harding was appointed director
of the U.S. Center for Substance Abuse
Prevention in May 2008. Previously she
served as associate commissioner of the
Division of Prevention and Recovery,
New York State Office of Alcoholism and
Substance Abuse Services. In November
2006, Harding was appointed by
the U.S. Department of Education
to serve on the Review Group for the
Department's Higher Education Center
for Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse and
Violence Prevention. This eight-member
panel advises the department on the
development and implementation of
effective alcohol and substance abuse
and violence prevention resources for
the nation 's institutions of higher edu-
cation. In February 2008, Harding
was appointed to the Council of Advisors
for the Network Addressing Collegiate
Alcohol and Other Drug Issues, a volun-
teer organization developed by the U.S.
Department of Education in 1987.
As the new CSAP
director, how do you
think federal agen-
cies can best work together
to advance prevention on a
national level?
One of my goals at CSAP is to increase
collaboration among federal agencies and
encourage that same collaboration on the
state and local levels. We are in a very exciting
time as far as prevention goes, with growing
acceptance of prevention within a public health
approach for reducing substance abuse. If
we are going to further advance that agenda
we need to have all the federal government
agencies that have a substance abuse preven-
tion component, to use a common language.
Delivering the same messages and focusing on
alcohol and other drug abuse as public health
issues will be a large contribution to the success
of the new administration.
While CSAP does not itself
conduct research, it does seek
to translate research to prac-
tice through its Centers for
the Application of Prevention
Technology and other activi-
ties. Can CSAP also help shape
research agendas to help com-
munities and states better
understand what works at
those levels?
Absolutely. For example, I have established
regular meetings with national research agen-
cies, including the National Institute on Drug
Abuse, National Institute on Alcohol Abuse
and Alcoholism, and Society for Prevention
Research, to discuss our overlapping agendas
and interests. CSAP also has connections at the
state level through the National Association
of State Alcohol and Drug Abuse Directors,
which helps us hear from constituents on the
needs in the field when it comes to research,
such as what do we need from the research-
ers? Prevention in the 1990s received a lot of
attention from the research community, which
provided the science that forms the basis for
the evidence-based practices and strategies that
underpin current prevention and intervention.
Now we need to advance research on envi-
ronmental approaches that are effective with
general populations. We need those program
models and strategies so that we can better help
the field.
In addition, CSAP and NIDA have set up four
symposia for CSAP staff to discuss the current
trends and research. During the first session,
NIDA wanted to know from CSAP what research
was needed from the perspective of those work-
SPRING 2009 PREVENTION FILE /
ing in the prevention field. We are also working
with SPR the same way. For example, college
students are one of the high-priority popula-
tions where additional research is needed.
Those working in higher education need a
better understanding of how best to change
normative attitudes around alcohol on their
campuses. I would like to see more research
that examines the effectiveness of adopting and
enforcing policies and then tying ^^^^^
them in with campus and com-
munity prevention strategies.
CSAP, NIAAA, and
the Department of
Education have advo-
cated for environ-
mental management
initiatives to reduce
high-risk drinking
among college stu-
dents. While some
progress has been
made in reducing
problems on campuses
and surrounding com-
munities, there are still
barriers implementing
such initiatives. What do you
think can be done to overcome
those barriers?
It will take time and persistence. For
example, when we talk about changing cul-
tural and social norms regarding alcohol and
other drug use, we need to share the evaluation
data on the implementation of successful evi-
dence-based programs that have, in fact, begun
to change those norms. People working in
prevention often feel that they have no power to
I would like
to see more
research that
examines the
effectiveness
of adopting
and enforcing
policies and
make changes, but if they understand the inter-
relationship between adopting and enforcing
evidence-based environmental policies — such
as reducing alcohol availability — and other
activities aimed at changing the normative
attitudes and behaviors of students, they will
see that they do have the power needed to move
forward. We need a consistent message that
environmental-management strategies have to
^^^^^ be matched with specific interven-
tion programs. But, we must also
examine where the drugs and
alcohol are coming from in order
to change the environment to
make them less available to
young people.
Based on your almost
three decades of expe-
rience working in the
then tying them alcohol and other drug
in with campus f ield - what do y° u
and community thinkthemostsi 9
prevention
strategies.
nificant advances have
been over those three
decades? What do you
think are the next big
challenges?
Without a doubt, the most significant
advances have been in prevention research. We
now have models, such as the logic model to
guide the planning process of how to assess an
environment, a community, a school, a family,
and an individual to determine problems and
needs. We can then rank the priority need and
use the evidence-based practice or promising
program model that matches up with that
need in order to reduce or mitigate problems or
risks. In the past, we have not been able to be
that specific. For many years, people questioned
whether prevention was successful. Now we have
evaluation and research evidence to show that
what we are implementing actually achieves
results. That has turned heads in the community
because we now have data that supports
prevention.
The second piece is helping communities and
prevention practitioners learn how to use that
data. It is very powerful to be able to use data to
show if you do X, Y, and Z, then this is what you
can expect to happen.
I think that next big challenges will be get-
ting more people to believe in this process and
become active participants in health care reform.
Prevention of alcohol and substance abuse — on
college campuses or anywhere in the United
States — needs to be part of the conversation
around health care reform to help people under-
stand that it is a public health response to a
chronic progressive disease. We need people to be
comfortable with the idea that this is something
that we can prevent. We can prevent the disease of
alcoholism and substance abuse. We can prevent
problems related to alcohol and substance abuse
on a college campus. We can do all of this if we
help people understand that there is a logic to
changing the attitudes and behaviors and inter-
vening when necessary to stop problems. It is not
good enough for us to know the science of effec-
tive prevention. We have to help everyone across
the country speak the same common language
about substance abuse prevention. I would like
people to have dinner table conversations about
what they can do themselves to lower the risk for
alcohol and substance abuse or related problems
in their families and communities. LJ
8
PREVENTION FILE
HIGHER EDUCATION EDITION
HOW OLD SHOULD YOU BE— TO BUY ALCOHOL?
At the repeal
of Prohibition
states were
given the
authority to
set minimum
alcohol
purchase
ages, among
other types
of alcohol
control
policies.
CURRENTLY ALL 50 STATES
limit alcohol purchases to people
aged 21 and over. But that hasn't
always been the case. In fact, it was July 17,
1984, when President Ronald Reagan signed
the national 21 minimum drinking age legisla-
tion into law, saying "... raising that drinking
age is not a fad or an experiment. It's a proven
success. Nearly every State that has raised the
drinking age to 21 has produced a significant
drop in the teenage driving fatalities."
At that time only 23 states had minimum
alcohol purchasing ages of 21 years old. The
legislation called for withholding federal high-
way funds from the remaining 27 states if they
did not follow suit. By 1988, all states had set 21
as the minimum drinking age.
At the repeal of Prohibition states were
given the authority to set minimum alcohol
purchase ages, among other types of alcohol
control policies. Nearly all designated 21 as
the minimum legal drinking age, but between
1970 and 1975 29 states lowered the MLDA to
18, 19, or 20. That's also when the minimum
age for other activities, such as voting, were
also lowered.
Then several studies in the 1970s found that
motor vehicle crashes increased significantly
among teens when the MLDA was lowered.
With evidence that a lower drinking age
resulted in more traffic injuries and fatalities
among youths, citizen advocacy groups, such
as Mothers Against Drink Driving, pressured
states to restore the MLDA to 21. Because of
President Ronald Reagan signs the minimum drinking age bill into law.
SPRING 2009 PREVEN
T I N FILE J
Now, 25 years
later the 21
HILDA has come
under fire from
a former college
president who
maintains that it
"hasn't reduced
consumption but
has only made it
riskier."
such advocacy, 16 states increased their MLDAs
between September 1976 and January 1983.
Resistance from other states, along with con-
cern that minors would travel across state lines
to purchase and consume alcohol, prompted
the federal government in 1984 to enact the
Uniform Drinking Age Act, which mandated
reduced federal transportation funds to those
states that did not raise the MLDA to 21.
Among alcohol control policies, the MLDA
has been the most studied: since the 1970s, at
least 70 studies have examined the effects of
either increasing or decreasing the MLDA.
Now, 25 years later, the 21 MLDA has come
under fire from a former college president who
maintains that it "hasn't reduced consump-
tion but has only
made it riskier."
^i In 2007 John
McCardell,
former
president of
Middlebury College (1992-2004), started an
organization called Choose Responsibility to
wage a national campaign to lower the drink-
ing age to 18. Then, in early 2008 he started the
Amethyst Initiative, a collective of college presi-
dents and chancellors who are calling upon
elected officials "to weigh all the consequences
of current alcohol policies and to invite new
ideas on how best to prepare young adults to
make responsible decisions about alcohol use."
At press time, the Amethyst Initiative had 135
signatories, including the presidents of such
top-tier schools as Duke, Ms, Dartmouth,
and Johns Hopkins. But with colleges and
universities numbering over 4,000 nationwide,
Amethyst supporters are just a drop in the
bucket.
Mediterranean versus Animal
House Style of Drinking
This effort by college presidents urges national
dialogue about policies that encourage adop-
tion of the so-called Mediterranean drink-
ing style. William G. Durden, president of
Dickenson College and one of the co-authors of
the Amethyst Initiative's presidential statement,
said: "Perhaps the United States should act like
countries with lower drinking ages, which have
less of a problem with abusive drinking among
youths but require stricter alcohol and drinking
education in a nationally consistent manner,
and inflict severe punishments on those
who drink and drive" {Chronicle of Higher
PREVENTION FILE
HIGHER EDUCATION EDITION
John Belushi in Animal House
Education, Aug.27, 2008).
At the American Public Health Association
Annual Meeting in November 2008, Tom Babor,
PhD, chair of the Department of Community
Medicine and Health Care at the University
of Connecticut, characterized Mediterranean
drinking as follows:
• Early introduction of youth to drinking in a
family environment that accepts alcohol as
a beverage and a nutrient, mainly to be con-
sumed at meals
• Low to moderate quantities per occasion
• Many situations where drinking is normative
• Informal social control
of drinking
• Alcohol integrated into
the daily conduct of
social life
In contrast, Babor
describes U.S. student
drinking as the Animal
House Drinking Style
with:
• High quantities per
occasion
• Many situations where
excessive drinking is
normative
• Little social control of
heavy drinking
• Alcohol consumed to
get drunk
• Little integration with
daily conduct of social
life
Babor says that this
style of drinking is a outgrowth of what he calls
the Animal House Initiative. "This is an effort
by college students, facilitated by the alcohol
beverage industry, to promote drinking as a
normative rite of passage. The initiative is part
of a global trend to make alcohol more conve-
nient, attractive and available to young people
through new product development, aggressive
marketing targeted at young adults, and indus-
try opposition to effective alcohol policies."
In fact, he points out that while there is a
Mediterranean style of drinking, there is also
a pronounced trend towards the homogeniza-
tion of drinking styles within Europe. In addi-
tion, being from a European Country with a
lower drinking age is not protective for youth
risky drinking. In examining findings from
The ESPAD report 2003: Alcohol and other
drug use among students in 35 European
countries ^Swedish Council for Information on
Alcohol and Other Drugs and Council of Europe
Pompidou Group, 2004) and Monitoring
the Future national results on adolescent
drug use 2003 (National Institute on Drug
Abuse, 2004), Babor says that youths from
most European countries are more likely to
report drinking and intoxication and are more
likely to report earlier age of first intoxication.
And, U.S. youths are most similar to European
youths from Portugal, France, Tbrkey, Hungary,
and Sweden, which have low-frequency/low-
intoxication patterns of consumption.
Babor contends that these finding fly in the
face of contentions by those who support lower-
ing the MLDA that compared with Europe, the
higher drinking age in the United States makes
alcohol a forbidden fruit and causes U.S. youths
to drink in riskier situations and in riskier
styles.
Not Traffic Safety Alone
The National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration says: "Perhaps no alcohol
safety measure has attracted more research
and public attention or shown more consistent
evidence of effectiveness than the minimum
legal drinking age (MLDA) 21 law in the United
SPRING 2009 PREVENTION FILE II
States (4n Examination of the
Criticisms of the Minimum Legal
Drinking Age 21 Laws in the
United States from a Traffic-
Safety Perspective, October 2008).
But the positive effect of the
21 MLDA is not limited to traffic
safety. A number of studies have
found that the 21 MLDA has also
reduced alcohol consumption
among 18 to 20 year-olds and is
associated with reductions in other
problems among underage youths,
such as alcohol-related suicide
and vandalism. And one review
of MLDA studies concluded that
"the benefits of the legal drink-
ing age of 21 have occurred with
little or no active enforcement in
most areas. Simply by increasing
enforcement levels and deterring
adults from selling or providing alcohol to
minors, even more injuries and deaths related
to alcohol use among youth are likely to be
prevented each year" (Journal of Studies on
Alcohol — College Drinking, What It Is, and
What To Do about It: A Review of the State of
the Science, Supplement No. 14, March 2002).
What Is To Be Done?
While the college president's signing on to the
Amethyst Initiative are "calling for a dialogue,"
McCardell describes a very specific alternative to
the 21 MLDA for 18 to 20 year-olds. Those who
take — and pass — a 40-hour alcohol education
course and participate in 12 hours of commu-
nity education, such as interviewing a recover-
It is ironic that
these campus
leaders call for
18- to 20-year-
olds to choose
responsibility;
when it is
these college
presidents who
have shirked their
responsibility
to counter the
dangerous
binge-drinking
culture that has
developed on
campuses.
ing alcoholic, can obtain a
so-called "drinking license"
modeled after state sanctioned
driver's licenses.
But NHTSA says that there
is no evidence to suggest that
lowering the drinking age to 18
for those who complete an edu-
cation program will reduce the
likelihood of their drinking and
driving, let alone make them
a more responsible drinker. In
addition, studies have shown
that traffic safety education
efforts alone are very good at
raising awareness, but that in
many cases they do not lead to
behavior change.
In addition, in Call to Action
(2002) the National Institute on
Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism
places prevention strategies that are informa-
tional, knowledge-based, or values clarification
about alcohol and the problems related to its
excessive use, when used alone, in what it calls
"Tier 4: Evidence of Ineffectiveness."
At the 2008 APHA Annual Meeting, Robert
Saltz, PhD, senior research scientist at the
Prevention Research Center in Berkeley, pre-
sented an overview of prevention research
aimed at reducing high-risk drinking. He said
that current research demonstrates that "we
have the ability to create environments that
help teens and young adults make healthy
decisions about alcohol consumption. We have
ample evidence that these strategies are effective
and our greatest impact will come from adopt-
ing mutually-reinforcing policies and practices,
including the 21 MLDA."
The 21 MLDA enjoys wide popular support, with
only 22 percent of respondents in the 2008
Nationwide Insurance Underage Drinking Survey
agreeing that legal drinking age should be
lowered from 21 to 18. But 75 percent said that
there should be increased enforcement of under-
age drinking laws. As part of a national strategy
to reduce underage drinking, the Institute of
Medicine called for increased compliance with
state minimum legal drinking age laws, saying
that states should eliminate loopholes in mini-
mum drinking age laws and states and localities
should increase compliance through a range
of strategies to limit commercial and social
availability (Reducing Underage Drinking: A
Collective Responsibility, September 2003).
Commenting on the Amethyst Initiative in the
Los Angeles Times (Aug.27, 2008) Robert Nash
Parker, PhD, co-director of the Presley Center
for Crime and Justice Studies at the University
of California, Riverside, says. "It is ironic that
these campus leaders call for 18- to 20-year-olds
to 'choose responsibility,' when it is these college
presidents who have shirked their responsibility
to counter the dangerous binge-drinking culture
that has developed on campuses. Research spon-
sored by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse
and Alcoholism has shown that there are effective
strategies that will reduce student binge drinking.
Instead, the presidents seem to have settled on
approaches that will increase profits for alcohol
companies at the expense of young people's lives
and health. Until they do their homework, they get
an F in public policy." \~3
12
PREVENTION FILE
HIGHER EDUCATION EDITION
TAXES
HEALTH
SAFETY
DOZENS OF STATE GOVERN-
MENTS this year are facing
budget deficits that make a
strong case for alcohol tax increases that serve
a dual purpose: helping solve a state's fiscal
problems while at the same time reducing the
impact of alcohol consumption on the cost of
protecting the public health and safety.
The Wall Street Journal reported early this
year that many state governments are facing
their largest deficits in a generation. The
problem is blamed on falling tax revenues
combined with a rising demand for social
assistance programs. Unlike the federal gov-
ernment, which can operate at a defi-
cit, state governments
are required to
balance their
budgets.
>A
Philip J. Cook, PhD, professor of public policy
and economics at Duke University, says as many
as 40 states may be exploring the possibility of
increasing alcohol taxes. "Many of the states
are desperate," he told Prevention File. "This
might be the moment when it's possible to
overcome the political power of the hospitality
industry, the beer distributors and other alcohol-
based industries."
Those industries are well aware that the odds
may be shifting against them. The Wall Street
Journal reported in January that the Distilled
Spirits Council of the United States (DISCUS)
is enlisting restaurant and hotel associations as
allies to combat tax proposals. "This will be an
extremely tough year," said Peter H. Cressy chief
executive of DISCUS.
Helping make it a tough year for DISCUS is
an accumulation of evidence that nudging alco-
hol taxes upward will not only help states with
their financial problems but will also help soci-
ety at large. Studies have shown that increases
in the price of alcohol can reduce drinking and
driving and its consequences, lower the fre-
quency of diseases, injuries and deaths related
to alcohol use and abuse, and reduce alcohol-
related violence and other crime.
A vast amount of research confirms the
connection between alcohol prices and
alcohol consumption. Alexander
C. Wagenaar, PhD, a
professor of epi-
demiology at the
University of Florida,
reported early in 2009
that a review of studies
spanning four decades has
confirmed the price-consumption connection.
"Results from over 100 separate studies report-
ing over 1,000 distinct statistical estimates are
remarkably consistent, and show without doubt
that alcohol taxes and prices affect drinking," he
said in a report published in the \omml Addiction
(February, 2009) • "When prices go down, people
drink more, and when prices go up, people
drink less."
The case for raising alcohol taxes is also
compelling for historical reasons. In most states,
alcohol taxes have not been increased for many
years. Moreover, the taxes are usually levied on the
volume of alcohol sold — not its value. Inflation
has eroded the real value of per-gallon or per-
barrel taxes on beer, wine and spirits until they
are negligible in relation to the retail price of the
product. And during the years that taxes have
remained low, the cost of dealing with the conse-
quences of alcohol consumption have
risen steadily.
Cook demonstrates how alcohol tax policies
have actually reduced the real price of alcoholic
beverages. He points out that Congress in 1951 set
the federal alcohol tax at $1.68 per fifth of distilled
spirits. In today's dollars, that's the equivalent of
$13.50 per fifth. "But Congress has only succeeded
in raising the tax twice since 1951, and by meager
amounts, so that instead of $13-50, the current tax
is just $2.16 per fifth. The result is that the current
price of a bottle of spirits is over $10 lower than it
would have been if Congress had simply indexed
the tax to the Consumer Price Index and then left
it alone," says Cook, whose bookPaying the Tab
(Princeton University Press, 2007) chronicles the
history of America's frustrating effort to develop
rational alcohol policies.
SPRING 2009 PREVENTION Fl
LE 13
Cook told Prevention File that alcoholic
beverage producers appear to be basing an
anti-tax campaign on the argument that the
hospitality industry is suffering more than
some others from the nation's economic
downturn and it would be unfair to saddle
it with higher alcohol taxes. ^^^
"Actually, they're using the same
argument they've always led SllOWfl that
Interest in raising state alcohol taxes ranges
from coast to coast, with the alcohol and hos-
pitality industries mobilizing for a fight. Gov.
Arnold Schwarzeneggar proposed a "nickel a
drink" tax increase on beer, wine and distilled
spirits in California, triggering a cry from
^^^^^^^^^^ m DISCUS that this would cause the
StlldieS have i oss f 20,000 jobs in the state. In
New York, Gov. David Peterson is
>/*"•**
with — that there are a lot of jobs JHCrGBSGS 111 HlG P ro P osin g a similar tax increase,
that depend on alcohol, that it's an nHpp flf AlPflhfll hoping 1° head off protests from
can reduce
drinking and
important industry in every state
and congressional district, so we'd
best leave it alone."
When an alcohol tax increase
is tied in with support of a public
health goal, such as expanding ^^^™
treatment opportunities for people
with alcohol dependence, the industry's
argument about job losses is weakened, Cook
points out. "If employment falls in the alcohol
industry as a result of the tax, it will increase
in other industries getting new support from
the tax."
New York's vintners by proposing
also that a state law now limiting
the sale of wine to liquor stores be
drMng and itS changed to allow wine to be sold
COnSCQUenCeSp in grocery stores. Kentucky is con-
^^^^^ m sidering a tax increase that would
add 25 cents to the cost of a six-
pack of beer. Wisconsin legislators have received
a proposal to raise alcohol taxes in order to
raise the pay of district attorneys and hire more
assistant DAs. In Wyoming, where alcohol taxes
have not been changed
since 1935, legislators
are considering an
increase to finance
programs to
reduce underage
drinking and
other alcohol-related social problems. Early in 2008
Maine's legislature passed a bill doubling state taxes
on beer and wine to raise revenue for health care.
With help from the alcohol industry, opponents
of the tax increase waged a successful initiative
campaign to repeal the measure in the election last
November.
Some states trying to relieve budget shortfalls are
looking toward alcohol tax revenue from a different
vantage point. Last year, Colorado lifted a ban on
Sunday sales of distilled spirits with the expectation
of a 7 percent increase in alcohol tax collections.
Similar policies have been proposed or adopted
in several other states that otherwise limit Sunday
sales. Those states which permit "local option"
to set the rules for alcohol sales within specific
counties are considering a change for the sake of
increasing the state's revenue from alcohol taxes. As
prevention advocates point out, policies that make
alcoholic beverages more available for the sake of
collecting more tax revenue could be self-defeating.
Gains in tax collections would be offset if not wiped
out by increases in the cost of law enforcement,
medical care and other consequences of alcohol
consumption.
"We're getting daily requests for assistance and
information about alcohol taxes from a great vari-
ety of places," says George Hacker, JD, director of the
Alcohol Policies Project of the Center for Science in
the Public Interest.
Hacker told Prevention File he believes that
14
PREVENTION FILE
HIGHER EDUCATION EDITION
Alcohol Policy 15
Policies for Reducing Problems Associated
With Alcohol Availability
The 15th in a series of conferences on the avoidance of alcohol-related problems
using public policy strategies
When?
TBA during either the second half of 2010 or first half of 201 1
Where?
Washington, DC (tentative)
Hi
-
Why now?
The new federal administration has signaled a renewed interest in science and public health. Meanwhile, states and localities are facing increased demand
for public services in the face of declining revenues. Evidence-based alcohol policy can reduce alcohol problems and resultant social costs, simultaneously
generating revenue (alcohol excise taxes and other user fees) to promote public health and safety.
Who should attend?
We welcome an anticipated attendance of up to 300 participants, including community-based practitioners, public officials, and researchers from across
North America and beyond.
More information
Call for abstracts, scholarship availability, exhibit opportunities, and accommodations forthcoming via silvergategroup.com/apl5. Reach Silver Gate
Group staff by e-mail -tomc@silvergategroup.com
backers of alcohol tax proposals would be wise to
adopt a two-pronged strategy, pointing out that
the tax increase would not only help balance
a state budget but would also help the state's
economy by providing funds for treatment and
prevention of alcohol problems. "Many treat-
ment programs are now being threatened by the
squeeze on state budgets. Those programs can
move people from dependence to a more active
and productive involvement in society," he said.
"It varies by local and state politics, but in
terms of public support an alcohol tax increase
has the greatest amount of public backing
when it's tied to some beneficial use — such as
rehabilitating addicted people in the criminal
justice system, or reducing underage drinking,
or enforcing rules against intoxicated driving.
People generally don't like to see the money just
poured into the deep, dark hole of government."
A proposed tax increase can gain 10 to 15
percent in public support when it would provide
funds for a beneficial use, says Hacker. CSPI
reports that in one national survey nearly
73 percent of adults supported an increase
in the tax on beer to pay for substance abuse
programs.
What about federal taxes on alcohol? While
Congress is not under constitutional pressure
to adopt a balanced budget, alcohol taxes
often come up for review when red-ink budgets
are looming, Hacker says. The Congressional
Budget Office has offered the option of increas-
ing the federal tax on distilled spirits by
about 20 percent — raising it to $16 per proof
gallon — and then equalizing the tax on beer
and wine on the basis of their alcohol content.
"That would raise about $28 billion over five
years, and my guess is that it will get more
discussion and attention this time in Congress
than in previous years," says Hacker. "But the
industry is not going away. It has a significant
political presence in Washington, but perhaps its
influence with the new administration may not
be as great as it has been in the past."
Although for a growing number of people,
increases in alcohol excise taxes seem to be a
good way to alleviate budget deficits, It's still a
hard sell. In California the proposed increase
didn't make it into the Governor's budget. But the
state could still generate an additional $1.2 bil-
lion in revenue annually by increasing its excise
tax on alcohol if a new bill proposed by San Jose
Assemblyman Jim Beall becomes law. His bill
would increase the tax by approximately 10 cents
per drink for beer, wine and distilled spirits, rais-
ing the tax on alcohol for the first time since July
1991. Beall says the tax money would be devoted
to emergency services, alcohol and drug treat-
ment programs and law enforcement operations
related to alcohol and drug abuse. LI
SPRING 2009 PREVENTION Fl
LE IS
All-hazard
planning
develops
capacities and
capabilities that
are critical to
prepare for a
full spectrum of
emergencies or
disasters.
PREPARED!
EMERGENCY— a serious situa-
tion or occurrence that happens
unexpectedly and demands
immediate action. Every year colleges and
universities are called upon to respond to a wide
variety of emergency and crisis situations —
ranging from tragic shootings and alcohol-
fueled disturbances to severe weather events.
Institutions of higher education face many
challenges in practicing emergency manage-
ment related to the distinctive structure and
environment of higher education. To help them
meet those challenges the U.S. Department of
Education recently reteasedAction Guide for
Emergency Management at Institutions of
Higher Education.
IHEs have structures and environments that
make them quite different from typical busi-
nesses — they often cover large geographic
areas, the campus population is in constant
flux, may operate complex enterprises in addi-
tion to academic programs, and operate almost
around the clock. The Guide points out that
such "structural and environmental char-
acteristics pose challenges for access control,
monitoring movements, defining boundaries
for facilities and grounds, standardizing pro-
cedures and decision-making processes, and
prioritizing resource allocations."
The Guide calls out nine key principles serve
as the foundation for developing effective emer-
gency management plans as follows:.
• Senior leadership on campus. The president,
chancellor, or provost must initiate and
support emergency management efforts to
ensure engagement from the entire campus
community.
• Partnerships and collaboration. Every
department responsible for creating a safe
environment and enhancing campus func-
tions must be involved in planning efforts.
• An "all-hazards" approach to account
for the full range of hazards that threaten
or may threaten the campus. Rather than
managing planning initiatives for a multitude
of threat scenarios, all-hazard planning devel-
ops capacities and capabilities that are critical
to prepare for a full spectrum of emergencies
or disasters, including natural hazards and
severe weather, biological hazards, and vio-
lence and terrorism
• Four phases of emergency management to
effectively prepare and respond to emergen-
cies. Part of the founding principles of com-
prehensive emergency management when the
Federal Emergency Management Agency was
created in 1979 is the four phases of emer-
gency management: Prevention-Mitigation,
Preparedness, Response, and Recovery.
16
PREVENTION FILE
HIGHER EDUCATION EDITION
■ Comprehensive design, while also provid-
ing for staff, students, faculty, and visitors
with special needs. Any procedures, products,
and protocols created to prevent, prepare,
respond, and recover from an emergency
also must accommodate people with various
levels of cognitive ability, knowledge, physi-
cal capabilities and life experience.
■ Comprehensive planning process that
addresses the particular circumstances
and environment of the institution. The
plan must be based on the unique aspects of
the campus.
• Trainings based on the institution's pre-
vention and preparedness efforts, priori-
tized threats, and issues highlighted from
assessments. Training should be conducted
in conjunction with community partners, as
well as integrated with responders' expertise,
to ensure consistent learning.
• Tabletop exercises prior to fully adopting
and implementing the emergency man-
agement plan. These exercises should cover
a range of scenarios that may occur on the
campus, and should be conducted with a
variety of partners and stakeholders from the
campus and the community.
• Disseminate information about the plan
to students, staff, faculty, community
partners, and families. General plans and
procedures can be posted around campus or
displayed on a Website.
Emergency Preparedness at
Purdue
Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, is one of 17
colleges and universities that received an
U.S. Department of Education Office of Safe and
Drug-Free Schools Emergency Management for
Higher Education Grant in 2008. Established in
cooperation with the Department of Health and
Human Services' Substance Abuse and Mental
Health Services Administration, this grant pro-
gram provide funds for higher education institu-
tions to develop, or review and improve, and fully
integrate campus-based all-hazards emergency
management planning efforts for higher educa-
tion institutions.
Purdue has developed a Campus Emergency
Preparedness and Planning Office (www.purdue.
edu/emergency_preparedness/) that "strives
to ensure the Purdue family is prepared for
emergencies." Purdue's Website illustrates that
an emergency can cover a wide swath of events,
including a pandemic flu epidemic and a tor-
nado. In addition to providing a comprehensive
emergency preparedness handbook that covers
events from crime and violence to an electrical
failure, the Website also links to community
resources, such as the local crisis center and
health department and the state and federal
homeland security offices.
Like many campuses, Purdue is a large and
complex institution, with people moving about
campus freely. In order to get warnings and
information out to as many people as possible
as quickly as possible it has developed an emer-
gency warning notification system called Purdue
ALERT. It's a multi-layered approach in place to
help spread the word quickly, based on the cir-
cumstances. For example, all hazards emergency
warning sirens alert people to immediately seek
shelter in a safe location within the closest facil-
ity or building during a tornado, earthquake,
release of hazardous materials in the outside air,
or a civil disturbance. Another communication
too is text messaging. Purdue University faculty,
staff and students may sign up to receive an
emergency notification text message.
The goal of the Office, which was established
in 2006, is "to provide a means to utilize all
available resources to prepare for potential emer-
gencies or disasters whenever possible and deal
efficiently with the effects of inevitable events,
respond to save lives and protect property, and
promote a means to recover mission critical
business and academic operations.
Planning Through Recovery at
Virginia Tech
Even with the most careful planning, it is dif-
ficult to anticipate all the impacts of an emer-
gency on campus. At the U.S. Department of
Education's 22nd Annual National Meeting on
Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse and Violence
Prevention in Higher Education in November
2008, Mark McNamee, PhD, senior vice president
and provost at Virginia Tech, spoke about the
importance of planning through recovery in the
aftermath of the April 16, 2007 shootings that
claimed the lives of 32 students and faculty on
his campus.
SPRING 2009 PREVENTION Fl
LE 17
McNamee said that there were a number
of unexpected experiences in the immediate
aftermath of the shootings. For example, the
number of individuals impacted and the need
for services is exponentially amplified by number
of victims. Regular individuals, not trained in
emergency services or aware of the institution's
emergency plan, will be pressed into service. And
while many campus individuals and units are
trained and responsible for emergency response,
untrained individuals will be pressed into service
and may not have the knowledge of the plan.
"Red Cross and government officials will
arrive, and not everyone at the institution will
understand the legitimate role these organiza-
tions have in emergency response and man-
agement. You might be overwhelmed by the
out-pouring of assistance — helpers will arrive,
in droves, asking to be assigned a role, and some
demand VIP treatment," said McNamee.
According to McNamee, the magnitude of the
media presence added "trauma" to the campus
and the victims. "While most were respectful,
some media members were relentless in their
pursuit of a 'story' in the immediate aftermath.
For example, some reporters tried to pass them-
selves off as family members and/or as clergy
members to gain access to victims," he said.
As for the intermediate aftermath of an emer-
gency or tragedy, McNamee said that campuses
may draw unwanted attention and attract indi-
viduals and groups with undesirable agendas to
the institution. "Also, you may need to address
the attraction of mentally unstable individuals
who may be drawn to or relate to the tragedy.
This will be true at the 'anniversary' of the
event and other event 'markers.'
"At Virginia Tech, we assigned a family liai-
son to work with the families of the deceased.
This idea was good on many levels: it helped
provide on-site and local assistance, initially
helped with communications," said McNamee.
However, he added, the liaisons could have
benefitted from the help from a trained victim
assistance person the ability to access victim ser-
vices, such as compensation and other resources.
McNamee pointed out that accepting dona-
tions and funds are a mixed blessing. "Trauma
and grief are emotions of action. Virginia Tech
was flooded with food that could not be used in
the immediate aftermath; followed by flowers,
gifts, banners, teddy bears, candles, hundreds
upon hundreds of town/county/government
proclamations. Gifts need to be acknowledged,
archived, and — eventually — you will need to
articulate a disposal policy. Funds received may
challenge your institution's federal and state
tax-exempt status. It is a challenge to manage
monetary gifts — are they to be distributed to the
victims? Do you want to establish a reimburse-
ment system? Are funds intended for the institu-
tion? These questions are difficult to answer in
the immediate aftermath and may shape the
relationship you develop with the families of
deceased and injured victims."
The press shows up at Virginia Tech.
18
PREVENTION FILE : HIGHER EDUCATION EDITION
Editor's note: For a copy of the Action Guide
)r Emergency Management at
of Higher Education go to www.ed.gov/
emergecyplan. For the full presentation
by Mark McNamee go to rems. ed.gov/
views/documents/EMHE 20081118MN
U.S, DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
Action Guide for Emergency
Management at Institutions of
Higher Education
cove
PlenaryMcNamee.ppt
College Drinking:
Reframing a Social
Problem
By George W. Dowdall
Praeger, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-275-99981-0
PROBLEMS RELATED TO
STUDENT DRINKING have a
long history at colleges and
universities. In fact, surveys of campus officials,
faculty and even students find that alcohol
problems rank high among campus life issues.
George Dowdall, PhD, is a professor of sociology
at St. Joseph's University with over three decades
of experience on college campuses at institu-
tions ranging from Harvard to UCLA. In 2000,
he was an American Sociological Association
Congressional Fellow with then U.S. Senator
Joseph Biden of Delaware. His academic experi-
ence along with a well-grounded understand-
ing of the research literature surrounding
college drinking and working relationships
with many of the people who have shaped
that research have led to College Drinking:
Reframing a Social Problem. In this new
book, Dowdall advocates for an upstream per-
spective when it comes to drinking by college
students. By that he means understanding the
broader cultural, organizational and social
forces shaping collegiate drinking behavior.
"Much of the research literature about col-
lege drinking looks at downstream behavior
COLLEGE..,.-....-
drInking
REFRAMING A SOCIAL PR0B1;
at individual colleges, well after students have
begun drinking and after they've chosen a
particular college. College drinking is part of
a pervasive and deep-rooted college culture,
one that shapes individual student behavior
as well as the organizational responses that
higher education had made to this behavior,
But like all real cultures, this one is filled with
contradictions and serves different interests in
different ways. Students and their parents place
it at the top of the list of problems colleges face;
presidents, administrators, and faculty treat
this problem differently," says Dowdall in the
book's preface.
Dowdall covers college drinking as it has
evolved as an issue in recent decades and why
students engage in excessive drinking, as well
as adverse consequences associated with drink-
ing, such as health problems, poor academic
performance and campus crime. The book
also examines the links between college drink-
ing, social life, and sex; public alcohol policy
and college drinking; the response of higher
education to the problem to date; additional
measures and strategies that colleges and uni-
versities could employ; and what students and
parents can do to cope with college drinking,
including strategies for choosing which college
to attend.
In the chapter on public alcohol policy and
college drinking, Dowdall argues that public
alcohol policy is one of the important factors
shaping college drinking. "Alcohol policies
shape how alcohol is produced, distributed,
marketed, and sold; what can be done about
college drinking; and even the discourse about
college prevention programs. Recent evidence
supports the argument that upstream factors
like policy may be as important — or even more
important — than downstream efforts to prevent
or control individual drinking."
College Drinking: Reframing a Social
Problem provides a wealth of material and
resources to assist professionals and general
readers alike gain a greater understanding of
a social problem that routinely commands
public attention in the media. In addition, the
book suggests actions that the public, officials
at institutions of higher education, and par-
ents and students alike can take to address the
behavior of high risk drinking by students and
reduce problems that impact not just students
and their families, but campuses and surround-
ing communities. O
Editor's note: For an interview with George
Dowdall on his book visit Inside Higher
Education at www. insidehighered. com/
news/2009/02/26/drinking
20 pr
EVENTION FILE
HIGHER EDUCATION EDITION
Continued from inside front cover
"If moderation of alcohol
consumption in certain
groups is strived for, it
may be sensible to cut
down on the portrayal of
alcohol in programmes
aimed at these groups
and the commercials
shown in between."
Smart Drug Danger
A recent small study has
found that a so-called
smart drug used as an
illegal study aid by college students may
carry more of an addiction risk than thought.
Scans of ten healthy men showed that the
prescription drug Provigil caused changes in
the brain's pleasure center, very much like
potentially habit-forming classic stimulants.
"It would be wonderful if one could take
a drug and be smarter, faster or have more
energy," Nora Volkow, MD, director of
the National Institute on Drug Abuse, who
led the study with a Brookhaven National
Laboratory scientist, said in an Associated
Press dispatch. "But that is like fairy tales.
We currently have nothing that has those
benefits without side effects."
According to AP, Modafinil's reputation as a
brain enhancer stems from an Air Force study
that found it improved the performance of
sleep-deprived fighter pilots.
Good Neighbor Policy
The University of Wisconsin Board of Regents
is considering a proposal to extend the dis-
ciplinary reach of state universities beyond
campus grounds in response to complaints
from residents in areas near campuses. Under
the current code, university officials can dis-
cipline students for on-campus misconduct,
but the code is less than clear about off-
campus behavior. The university can punish
students who commit assaults and damage
property off campus if the victims are other
university students or employees, but the
code does not specify what the university
can do in other cases. The last major revision
of rules regarding non-academic disciplinary
action occurred in 1996.
The new policy would allow university offi-
cials to discipline students for off-campus
actions if they fit into one of 1 6 specific
categories and affect a substantial university
interest. The 16 categories of behavior in
the new policy range from sexual assault or
property damage to "serious or repeated
violations of municipal law." A student is
subject to discipline, up to suspension or
expulsion, if his or her off-campus behavior
fits into one of these categories.
The proposed changes came out of a
committee convened in February 2007
by the Board of Regents. The revised rules
are expected to take effect Fall 2009,
after Board of Regents and state legislative
review.
California Campuses Welcome Vets!
The Post-9/1 1 Veterans Educational
Assistance Act, passed into law in 2008,
takes effect on Aug. 1 , 2009. A veteran
enrolled as a full-time student taking 1 2
units is eligible to receive assistance in col-
lege tuition and fees, a book stipend and
monthly housing allowance. Campuses
throughout the country are expecting more
students from the more than 1 .6 million
Americans who have served in Iraq and
Afghanistan. In California alone, about
28,000 men and women a year muster out
of active-duty service.
According to the Los Angeles Times (Mar.4,
2009) San Diego State University, which is
located in the nation's largest military com-
munity, is one campus that is determined
to make the campus a leader in attracting
veterans and supporting their educational
endeavors. A veterans center has been
established and fundraising continues
for scholarships (Wal-Mart contributed
$1 00,000). There is talk of creating military-
only housing along fraternity row.
Vietnam veteran Jim Kitchen, now vice
president for student affairs at SDSU, told
the Times that he remembers his alienation
when he returned to college in the Midwest
after serving in the Army. "I was very bitter,"
Kitchen said. "We're not going to let that
happen to these veterans."
Other campuses in the California State
University system are also involved under
the governor's Troops to College program,
which was established in 2006. In an agree-
ment between California State University
officials and the military, each year a total of
1 1 5 military personnel, selected by generals
and admirals, will be guaranteed admission
to one of the system's campuses. Other vet-
erans will have their applications evaluated
separately from civilian applicants.
oncerned about
alcohol, other drugs,
or violence on campus
Our Services
•Training
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•Website
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www.higheredcenter.org
800-676-1730
Ask us about —
•Comprehensive
approaches to prevention
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coalitions
•Strategic planning
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Higher Education Center
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